Recruiting Brainfood for the week ahead - Issue #299

This week’s brainfood is supported by our buddies, Join Talent

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The most important component of any online content is the headline - first thing people see, first thing people are going to make a decision upon. 7 formulas which you can use to improve your open rate. Works on titles on any media incidentally, see how popular Youtube videos are titled. Must read for anyone writing content, or posting ads, on the Internet.

Essential report from Indeed on the return of international talent mobility, following nearly two years of pandemic induced lockdown. Candidate shortage will not only be alleviated by moving the jobs to remote workers, but also by moving those workers to the job - even if they are ‘remote’ (relo-to-remote). Must read

So I shared some thoughts on this guide book last week on LinkedIn, and I found it a revelation mainly because it underlined to me what a mediocre recruiter I would be if I were ever to return to the field! Outstanding guidebook from our buddies BrightHire, using the trail guide metaphor to outline all things you need to do to be the optimal recruiter. Must read.

This is a super interesting premise given that 99% of startups fail, meaning that outstanding talent is constantly being self trained and then cycled back in the labour market. It’s rather depressing to find that recruiters significantly downgrade founders as viable candidates. Summary on why here (including what former founders should do, what employers need to be doing) and the full research paper here

The commentary on this post is little less interesting than the visualisation of labour flow between big tech businesses. It is fascinating to see where ex-Amazonians go (looks like Stripe, Coinbase were initially the main beneficiary), and speculate as to which organisations had an effective competitor targeting strategy. Have a read here. H/T to brainfooder Denys Dinkevych 🇺🇦 for the share

We know already that remote is both less attractive and more challenging for entry level talent. This post makes the claim that workers need twice the amount of upskilling if they are remote vs in office. Does this comport to your experience? It’s probably a decent heuristic, given when absence of ‘osmotic information transfer’. Some tips for managers on what to do about it, here

Whenever you survey employees they are going to validate remote; most remarkable statistic here is that 87% of workers would take remote if offered it, a super super majority. Employers and politicians are going to have to gear up for a long term challenge if they persist in calls to back-to-the-office. Accessible report, here. H/T to brainfooder Stephen Kennedy for the share.

Hardware adoption remains the barrier to doing stuff in the Metaverse - simply put, not enough people have access to an Occulus, and those that do will be from higher income backgrounds, leading to clear DEIB challenges. Having said that, we can imagine a future where these devices become ubiquitous and employers who have already figured out how to be present in these spaces, will win that future competition for talent. Might Capgemini be one of them? H/T Colin McNicol for the share in the fb group

It’s a resource rather than a tool, but this is a pretty decent Coda of all the employees at Coinbase who have been let go recently. Categorised by job function, with LinkedIn, email and some phone numbers available. Someone should really build a site which can aggregate all these databases together, that would be cool.

Some of the best recruitment insight comes from the candidate POV, especially ones who have gone around the block a few times enough to have confidence in their opinions, without succumbing to bombast. This post from a software engineer on how to approach the job search tells us a lot about how the highly skilled, in-demand think about the recruiter techniques we often employ. Must read for those who care about CX

Well I rarely post content from the FBI, but this update on the bureau’s website suggests the issue of remote work fraud is not a mythical problem; using Deepfake pictures, AI written profiles and then automated bots to build out LinkedIn networks, it is only a matter of time before our most used platform becomes parasitised with convincing fake accounts. We’re going to need verified ID really. H/T to brainfooder Jeroen Kneppers for the share.

BBC Worklife is officially best part of the Beeb - some of these posts have really thought provoking premises. Does being a great liar confer competitive advantage to your career? If so, effective self delusion is the way to get good at it. This is not a recommendation but something to look out for when you encounter a particularly convincing candidate.

Right wing politics can be best understood as a permanent mission to reduce scope of government, and when they succeed in weakening the state, other institutions invariably step up to provide capacity. In the US, with distrust of government in the cultural DNA, this phenomena is perhaps most regularly observed. Culture Amp’s response here to overturning of Roe vs Wade is far from unique.

Surprisingly accessible guide from WEF on the application of blockchain to organisation structure - the Decentralised Autonomous Organisation (DAO). Handy definition of terms, plus a taxonomy on the types of DAO there are. One for the future of work types or dedicated acolytes to Satoshi Nakamoto

When Trump says ‘we had great chemistry’ he may not be speaking in metaphors, but literally (albeit unknowing) describing a real process of olfactory exchange. The man is a terrible example of course, but a useful exemplar to illustrate a hidden bias we might have always had - think about this when you next do an in-person interview. Further: how persistent is the effect? If you don’t get used it, you might have an ambient disquiet about a work colleague or candidate and not know why. Anyways, someone recommend me some aftershave, going to beat this one ahead of time.

Given that it’s ok to use slave labour, we might also take some interest as to what happens to those workers when are no longer indentured, which in the US might be as many as 10 million people. Brainfooders Bas van de Haterd and Akbar Karenga on hiring the formerly incarcerated. Have a listen here.

Somewhat challenging listening as two engineers deep dive into organisational structure and change. The challenge is the use of engineering terminology (which we do not know natively) to topics which we may consider ourselves expert. As ever though, it is thought provoking to pay attention when outsiders talk about organisational change. Give it a shot.

Unusually personal interview with Marc Andreesen, unquestionably one of the live players in the world today, in conversation with Tyler Cowen. They both speak 1.5 x faster than normal human beings so this was a fun, staccato ride.